Tag: blogs (Page 5 of 5)

      How Valve is Making Sure Gamers Get the Games they Want, But Only if it Helps Children’s Charity

      September 4, 2012 /

      Valve may be my favorite video game company in the world.

      It really has nothing to do with their games either. I mean, I’m as big as a fan of “Half-Life,” “Left 4 Dead,” “Team Fortress 2” and the rest of the lineup as anyone, but it’s more the general vibe of the company that appeals to me so much. They’re living proof that it is possible to maintain a respectable bottom line, without having to sacrifice artistic or personal integrity. Maybe it’s their supposed ‘no bosses’ atmosphere at the office, but you actually do get the impression that they make moves for the benefit of their fans and not their figures.

      Case in point is the new Green Light section on Steam. In case you weren’t aware, Steam Green Light allows indie developers a forum to submit their projects to for approval to be featured on Steam. The games are voted on by the users, and run the virtual gamut of just about every genre and concept you could possibly imagine. It’s similar to Kickstarter, with the key difference being that most of these developers aren’t asking for money, but rather the kind of exposure to open consumer minds that only Steam can provide.

      With any open market of this magnitude, there is naturally going to be problems. Already cases of false titles (more than a few “Half-Life 3s” have been pitched) and morally improper game concepts have been reported, plus you just have the general onslaught of pitches that leads to hard worked ideas being buried under a pile of half-hearted hopefuls.

      Valve may have found a solution to the problem though, and it comes in the form of a “pay to play” type entry fee. Now for a developer to feature their idea, it’s going to cost $100 dollars. In the grand scheme of things, most developers can easily write this off as a minor investment in their own project, with the potential reward being worth far more than that figure. And in case you actually believed that Valve would do something like  pocket the money, you forget who you’re dealing with.  They’ve announced that all proceeds from this fee will be donated to the Penny-Arcade sponsored charity Child’s Play.

      Only Valve could manage to solve a nightmare of a logistical problem in a way that somehow manages to help children’s charities. It’s that surreal level of forward thinking and personal responsibility the company has that even makes me believe that their newly rumored venture into the physical console market that their pet project “Steam” is slowly helping to destroy, might somehow work after all.

      News

      The Rise of “Guilds,” and the Fall of “Heroes”

      September 1, 2012 /

      As one MMO flies to incredible new heights, another that once promised players that very feature is coming to an end.

      Recently the MMO world was hit with two big bits of news as “Guild Wars 2” developer ArenaNet posted on their Facebook page, that all first party digital downloads of the new mega hit MMO are suspended temporarily in order to insure server stability. While the game is still available through third party sites and retail stores, the developers themselves feel they have a responsibility to everyone in the game to hold off on new sales directly from them, so that play isn’t interrupted. Currently new methods to expand digital services are being looked at.

      Hot off the heels of that announcement comes another from the publisher of “Guild Wars 2,” NCsoft, that they will be folding Paragon Studios, and therefore effectively bringing an end to that developer’s MMO title “City of Heroes” by the end of the year.

      The reasons for these individual stories of success and untimely demise are both simple and complex, but ultimately revolve around each other.

      First, in case you didn’t follow the insane pre-release hype, or immediately snatch up the product that finally launched, “Guild Wars 2” is slowly taking the online world by storm in a way that no other MMO has done since “World of Warcraft” itself. It’s doing this through an incredible art style with a scope and integrity never before seen in a game like this, a PvP system that’s so brilliant and well executed it looks to make all other competitive systems irrelevant by the time it kicks into gear, and maybe best of all, a level of difficulty that rewards players for putting more time into it by actually making the game better as you go along, instead of creating more incentive for new players, and providing cold shoulders for veterans. Tying it all together, unlike “WoW,” “Guild Wars 2” is free to play, continuing one of the more welcome video game trends in some time.

      I’ve had the privilege of playing the game recently, and I don’t think I could give you an honest critical review of it. That’s because despite some of its flaws, I have such a deep and abiding respect for the game that questions of review scores and likes or hates are irrelevant. It’s one of those stand up and take notice games that only come along once in a while, even if all of the specifics aren’t perfect.

      Oddly though, it seems to achieve such lofts, a sacrifice of sorts had to be made. That seems to be the largest reason behind the cancellation of service for “City of Heroes,” as reports still have the game boasting a sizable player base, and even reporting some respectable sales figures as recently as last year for such an aging title.  However, earlier this year NCsoft reported its first companywide loss in a while, and at the time “City of Heroes” was at the bottom of the sales list. With other ongoing projects to support, and bigger titles on the horizon, it would seem “City of Heroes” fell to the archvillian known as fiscal reports, and nothing more.

      Unfortunately it’s not easy to look at this as a case of one door closing and another opening. As good as “Guild Wars 2” is, and as great as it promises to be, “City of Heroes” long stood as the somewhat appropriate icon of hope in the MMO world. It wasn’t a fantasy or sci-fi game, yet it produced a well built and, initially, successful MMO. Now that it has fallen to a, admittedly well worthy, challenger to the “WoW” crown of fantasy MMO dominance, I worry that the message will become more and more clear in developer’s minds that new entrants in the genre are unwelcome, especially if they are trying something different.

      In a year’s time I feel that the MMO market will be hotly divided by “Guild Wars 2” players, and by “WoW” addicts, and with good reason. At that time, the mention of a title like “City of Heroes” won’t lead to tears, but rather fond memories. Still, I wish that it were possible for the game to continue in some capacity for as long as it can. Because while the game’s sales figures may have been mild mannered like reporter Clark Kent, beneath the corporate visage of numbers lied an idea of originality, individuality, and innovation in the American way.

      Underneath it, lied a true MMO hero.

      News

      Riot needs a new communication channel

      September 8, 2011 /

      I’ve written about this in the past, but recent events have once again brought to light the fact that Riot desperately needs a new way to communicate important information to players. The forums just aren’t cutting it anymore. Important threads are getting buried, relevant threads are getting downvote-locked, and announcement threads are being relegated to obscure forums because of the giant LoL troll population.

      Community Involvement vs. Communication of Important Information
      Riot has always excelled at community involvement but failed at communicating important information to the community at large. That sounds contradictory, but there’s a big difference between community involvement and the communication of important issues.

      Community involvement includes responses to threads like “Break the game in one sentence,” or “@Riot my 1000th win.” Don’t get me wrong – Riot responses to these threads are valuable, but on a different level than the important information. Riot responses to these threads build community relationship and strengthen the tie players feel to the developer. Involvement makes us feel like a part of the Riot family, like we’re in on the joke.

      Communication of important information relates to things like the Riven patch delay, the delay of the end of Season One, the Mac Client shutdown, ELO decay, the AoE bug (sorry, official forum post has been deleted), Dominion, champion changes, customer loyalty issues, feature teases, and so on. You see what I’m doing there?

      There are countless issues that are important to some or all of the playerbase, but they’re scattered all over the forums, buried in the middle of long threads, written as secondary red responses and just generally difficult to locate. When handled improperly, these issues make the playerbase feel ignored, unappreciated, and give the impression that Riot is out of touch.

      A Place for Everything
      The solution is pretty simple – each communication channel should have a clearly defined purpose. The forums are a great place for Rioters to interact with the community. This is where we should see the comments about the new Kennen plushie, the requests for games with Rioters, the Songs of the Summoned, the contests, the podcasts, the new databases, the in-house leagues. All of these things add value to the community, but they need to be separate from the communication of important information.

      The new communication channel is the place for important, design/balance/timeline-related Riot posts. You could send me to the DevTracker, but the DevTracker is totally polluted with the Involvement posts I just mentioned. It can take hours to find the red post I’m looking for. We also have the Riot logo next to threads to which a Rioter responded, but that only shows the first response. Even third-party DevTrackers, like the one at CLGaming.net, don’t quite cut it. They’re definitely an improvement on Riot’s own, but they still don’t get the job done. We need one location for all the important, game-relevant information.

      Riot Should Consider a Blog
      My personal recommendation for the new channel is a blog. It’s what I know. It’s what I’m familiar with. It also has several technical advantages. First, the links provide information about the post. URLs to my LoL blog all contain the month, day, and year the post was published. In most cases they contain the title. For community sites, this is great. No longer will I be sending readers to “http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1185192” to read up on the Mac Client news. I could send them instead to “http://blog.leagueoflegends.com/2011/09/02/mac-client-closing-september-6th.” It’s a slightly longer URL but contains a nice preview of what they’re about to see.

      Blogs also focus discussion. I don’t want to dig through 400 pages of comments about upcoming Orianna nerfs, the majority of which (the comments) are three words or less. All of that discussion now appears in one location and, with a robust comment system, the quality responses can be voted to the top, where they will be most prominent. Yes, some things will still get buried – no system is perfect – but it’s far better than the current system, in which not just the comments are buried; the thread itself disappears.

      Most importantly, though, a blog centralizes information about this game. Someone requests design change information? Send them to the blog. How do I tell my friends about the latest Dominion update? Send them to the blog. Tribunal changes? Blog. Patch delay? You get the picture.

      Conclusion
      Forums aren’t the only way to give your playerbase information. They are one way, and they have a best use. Be clear about the purpose for each channel of information, Riot. It makes your intentions, designs, and struggles more transparent to the player base. We aren’t asking you to rush deadlines or put out underwhelming products just so we can have them. We just want easy access to information. We just want to know what’s going on.

      Current Affairs, Editorial, league of legends

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